On Sun, 2 Nov 2014 17:20:00 -0000
"Col" wrote:

There's nothing wrong in literature, language changes all the time.
Dickens and Brenard shaw used "They was" and they only lived about
a century ago.

Yes, language changes all the time.
That's the whole point I was making. However we don't say
'they was' today, no matter how many dead writers may have done so in
the past.
Therefore it is *wrong*.

Of course, "they" can also refer to a singular person when gender is
unknown so one might try to argue that in that case "was" might be more
appropriate than "were". ;-)

--
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks. Mail: 'newsman' not 'newsboy'.
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